


It Ends with Us

by Golden_Moon_Huntress



Category: Young Dracula (TV)
Genre: Count Dracula is a bad parent, Evil Count Dracula, Grey Ingrid, Grey Vlad, Possessive Brother Vlad, Protective Big Sister Ingrid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:22:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24568420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golden_Moon_Huntress/pseuds/Golden_Moon_Huntress
Summary: Count Dracula was a centuries old, evil bloodsucking vampire. Do you really believe he loved his children?
Relationships: Vladimir Dracula & Ingrid Dracula
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Young Dracula.  
> Okay, so here's an idea that wouldn't leave me alone and is pretty much what it says on the tin. The Count is a centuries old evil vampire, and we see how he treats Ingrid, right? It's not really very funny. Well, what is there to say he actually loves either of his kids?

At least when Magda was there they just fought like cats and dogs. Their dad - the Count Dracula - had something to focus his anger on.

Now though-

Now-

Now he would take any excuse to be insulted.

He would lose his temper at the drop of a stake.

And the only things in his line of fire were Renfield, Ingrid, and Vlad.

Usually in that order.

Renfield was oddly happy to take his usually equally odd punishments.

But Ingrid and Vlad-

Ingrid had never been the defensive big sister type. It wasn't in her nature. But the first time she found Vlad crying because the Count had lost his temper and backhanded him across the Great Hall ignited something in her.

Something primal.

Something violent.

(Well, even more violent than Ingrid already was.)

Something protective.

Vlad had never been the ambitious little vampire kid. It wasn't in his nature. But the first time his dad lost his temper at him and backhanded him across the Great Hall ignited something in him.

Something primal.

Something violent.

Something vampiric.

After that day, if they weren't in their bedrooms, Ingrid never left Vlad's side. She was the girl child, the worthless one, and if the Count was only going to hit one of them, it would be her.

It would always be her.

And afterwards, Vlad at the grand old age of eleven going on twelve, would have to clean her up and patch her scrapes and bruises, and they both pretended nothing ever happened and that they still hated each other as much as they ever did.

Of course it was still Vlad sometimes and then it would be Ingrid's turn to play nurse, cleaning up Vlad's bruises, wiping his tears and pretending nothing had happened when they woke curled together in the morning.

"When I turn sixteen," she whispered, "when I have my fangs, we'll find out who the truly evil one in this family is."

Sometimes Vlad's sister scared him, even when they weren't fighting.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Vlad turned twelve. His dad got him a knife and a mouse.

"For biting practise," he said, flashing his fangs.

They were still better than Ingrid's presents, which were, of course, nothing. Vlad and Ingrid let the mouse go in the woods a few days later. Ingrid kept the knife.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

It turned out that there was something the evil, heartless, bloodsucking monster Count Dracula was afraid out.

That something was a mob of angry peasants wearing straw hats and carrying guns, pitchforks, and flaming torches.

They were pretty terrifying.

Vlad wondered where one even got straw hats, pitchforks and flaming torches from these days.

(Down in the village, one villager had raked in a fortune selling his old farming supplies and the straw hats his children made for the scarecrows, but that's another story.)

The Dracula clan, plus Renfield, fled Transylvania with little more than the clothes on their backs.

The Count was angrier and more hateful than ever, and now they were trapped in a contained vehicle with him. Vlad linked his fingers with Ingrid's and gripped tight.

They stopped in one of the Count's old manor hideouts in Austria. It was dusty, unclean, smelled like rotting flesh in places and had no running water, but at least it was big enough that the Dracula children could pick a room, close and barricade the door and window, and hide in the closet for a bit.

"I'm fourteen years old," Ingrid muttered. "I can believe I'm sat here hiding from dad with you in a closet bat breath."

"If you don't like it, you could leave."

Ingrid sighed. "How about no?"

They had to go out eventually though (it was getting awkward when they both admitted to needing the toilet) and found their dad in the main hall waving a letter around and ranting something about the peasants being out to get him.

Apparently the manor had been declared by the locals to be 'an unseemly and dangerous eyesore.'

The Count demanded a new 'lair of darkness' be found for him at once.

Vlad did his best.

There were a surprising amount of castles for sale on the Internet. There was a nice one in Germany, but he and Ingrid didn't speak German, so that was out. For the same reason, so was the cool looking one with guard towers in Russia. There was a possible one in France, and another large one in Scotland with six towers and a dungeons. At last he found one somewhere that him a year ago would have loved and him even now jumped at.

Britain.

Wales.

Stokely.

The most normal looking normal place he had ever seen.

It had traffic lights and zebra crossings and houses with little fences and everything!

They bought that one.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Another long car journey with Count Dracula and all their worldly belongings was hell on earth. Vlad and Ingrid fell asleep eventually, her arm around his waist and his head on her shoulder.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note  
> I do not own Young Dracula.  
> As a heads up, this chapter covers series one, and there aren't any massive diversions from canon yet beyond Vlad and Ingrid's opinions on them. Some episodes I imagine would play out like they did on the show, but some would change and some (Slaytime Tv and Like Father like Son in particular) I imagine wouldn't happen in this AU because of the change in family dynamics, especially between Vlad and Ingrid.

Stokely was the most normal town Vlad had ever seen. Something in him really hoped they could make a new start here. Not just as a place to live, but as a family.

"I want the tower room!"

"I called dibs!"

"Well, I called dibs before you were born bat breath!"

He was even fighting with Ingrid like they used to, not the half-hearted sarcastic bickering routine they had fallen into.

His dad said he should have the top one, because he was his son and heir.

Vlad wondered if he would ever act like it.

Ingrid wanted the master bedroom, but the small room under Vlad's in the tower was much further from the crypt and much closer to Vlad's.

Yeah, she took the lower tower room.

**ItEndswithUs** **-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

On the first evening a dim witted vampire loving breather boy climbed in Vlad's window and introduced himself as Robin Branagh. Ingrid was all for sending him home the fast way, but (after some careful consideration) Vlad insisted that they didn't do that. Instead he saw fit to befriend the boy. Ingrid couldn't for the life of her see why and resented the boy for a very long time. For so long now it had only been her and Vlad in their little family, and now she had to find space for someone else. Still, if it made Vlad happy, she supposed she could deal with it for now. Only until she could deal with it permanently of course. After he managed to escape being their dad's tea, Vlad snuck out to his house. The Count dragged him home and tossed him into the tower room from ten feet in the air.

Sometimes Ingrid wondered whether he just forgot how fragile they were before the change.

Sure, vampire kids were tougher than breather kids, but even they had a limit.

Vlad's was bruising across the left of his face, a sprained ankle, and bruised ribs. Ingrid lay next to him in his comfier than hers bed. "Vampires don't make friends with breathers for a reason bat breath."

"I know. But maybe I just want to be normal for once."

**ItEndswithUs** **-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Being normal apparently involved school, as someone reported them for not attending within six weeks of them living there.

And school apparently involved a very inept Slayer, because their lives just couldn't be easy.

A Slayer that at first thought Vlad's vampire loving friend Robin was an actual vampire and then tried to stake his dad.

Ingrid would have let him do it (it would have solved their Slayer problem quite nicely) but Vlad insisted on stepping in.

That boy always had been too soft hearted for a Dracula.

Sometimes Ingrid wondered if he had breather in him.

The vampire loving friend's little sister Chloe also found out about them being vampires (apparently they were forming a club) on the first day. It was kinda nice having another girl to talk to (even if she was a ten year old know it all with an annoying accent) but Ingrid would never admit it.

Vlad's friends did eventually have some worth when Robin saved her from having to marry some low life goat herder when she turned sixteen by pretending to be her boyfriend. On the same day Vlad had some sort of freak out thinking his fangs were starting to grow in - at twelve! - and Ingrid had to talk him down from that.

She decided not to tell him because it would only spook and terrify him further, but it did look his fangs were just beginning to come in, his teeth and gums looked much the same as hers did a few weeks ago. Ingrid kept an eye on it, but if it was happening, it was happening at a slower rate than her. Maybe because he was so young.

They both grew close to Robin and Chloe, perhaps closer than they ought to. Ingrid wondered sometimes, what would happen when they went through the transformation. As she said to Vlad once, there was a reason vampires and breathers didn't mix socially. Vlad of course was still hopelessly searching for a way to avoid becoming a vampire.

Robin and Chloe's parents accepted them with open arms (while their dad thought they were all food and one day they might think the same). It felt kind of nice to have someone who said she could talk to her bout girl problems (or any other kind) if she needed. She never did of course, she was still Ingrid Dracula, but it had been a long time since anyone cared.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Only Chloe's quick thinking and Robin's chess playing skills saved them all from the wrath of an undead mummy with a grudge against their dad for having cheated in a chess match to decide who married their mother. The thought made Ingrid shudder. Their mum might be their mum - deceitful abandoning bitch that she was - but she was a vampiress of her own accord, not goods to be bought and sold!

Meanwhile, only the Slayer's own incompetence saved the Count from being ashed - much to Vlad and Ingrid's vague disappointment. Sometimes Vlad wondered if that man could slay a vampire if they chained one up in garlic and pegged it outside his caravan before the sun rose.

Maybe they ought to get their dad to help test the theory.

It seemed a little unfair to sentence Chandu to death by mummification - again - when their dad was the one who cheated in the first place, but the absolute last thing they needed was _another_ undead evil creature of unknown intentions wandering around Stokely, so back in the crypt with him it was.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Vlad's thirteenth birthday came (it seemed to have been no time since his twelfth and he was running out of time to find a way to avoid the transformation) and with it a visit from their mum's parents, who wanted Vlad to become a vampire early.

Vlad on his twelfth birthday would have been dead set against it.

Vlad on his thirteenth thought it through.

"If I had all my vampire powers, I could protect us," he said. "I could stand up to dad."

"Pull the other leg breather boy, it's got bells on. We both know you don't actually want your transformation now. You wouldn't be able to do all the dorky things you enjoy, like playing that stupid breather game or seeing Robin and Chloe."

In the end they destroyed the vial of blood needed for the ritual and never spoke of it again.

Vlad would become a vampire on his sixteenth birthday, just like she would, just like she would, just like their dad did centuries ago.

There was no stopping it.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

When the Count decided he was going to hold a Hunt Ball and find a new wife, they supported it one hundred percent. A new wife would mean _someone else_ for him to fight with, _someone else_ for him to belittle, _someone else_ for him to demand go hunting peasants and sheep with him.

Of course, it had to go to hell. Their mum turned up, and then the Slayer got in dressed as a woman and nearly staked their dad. Nearly was the key word here, as the stake hit a flask in the Count's jacket, and again Vlad found himself wondering at the man's incompetence.

He was a little more surprised by the fact he cared their dad had nearly died. He'd always believed he could quite happily watch him turn to dust for the way he had treated him and Ingrid. Yet as he lay there on the floor there was still something in him screaming. Maybe it was just the vampire part of him that said family was everything.

"I wouldn't have cared if he really had staked him," Ingrid said that night. Vlad had no trouble believing it, and that scared him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note.  
> So, admittedly a fairly slow and ordinary start there with no big splits from the show. If I haven't mentioned an episode, it either played out as canon or didn't happen. This chapter and the next were originally all one, but I decided to break them up, so that's why the slow start. The next chapter starts seeing changes, and after that come the bigger splits.


	3. Chapter 3

Their dad declared war on the Slayer, which came as no surprise.

What came as more of a surprise was when the Slayer broke into the castle and captured them with the help of Renfield's traps.

Robin distracted Van Helsing long enough for Chloe to climb in the caravan window and untie them. When they got back to the castle they found their dad had kidnapped Jonno and had to rescue him before they could get on with their lives.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

To make matters worse with the Van Helsings, their dad's brother Ivan and his two kids, Boris and Olga, came to stay since Boris was turning sixteen and would need the blood mirror. Ivan, now known as Harvey, was vegetarian, Boris was a snivelling wimp, and Olga was a little brat who wanted Ingrid's bedroom for some reason, even though the master bedroom was bigger and empty.

Ivan gave up vegetarianism after losing a bet with the Count, and it was soon time for Boris's sixteenth. The five of them waited outside the mirror chamber as he screamed and cried. Ingrid smiled. "When I have my fangs," she murmured so that Vlad and Olga could hear, "they're all going to pay."

Vampire Boris turned out to be not just evil, but very, very crazy. Incredibly crazy. One of the craziest people Vlad and Ingrid had ever met. Vlad could think of only two ways to take him down: smash the blood mirror, which would mean Ingrid would have difficulty with her transformation, or trick Boris into returning the Count and Ivan's power.

He chose the second one, obviously.

Pureblood vampire transformations were said to be terrible without the family's blood mirror.

By the way newly evil again Ivan was treating Olga, she could be in for a rough time these next few years until her transformation. Vlad gave her Robin and Chloe's phone number to contact them because they knew how that felt.

She never called.

"Ungrateful stubborn spoilt brat," Vlad grumbled.

"She'll learn," Ingrid replied. Chloe huffed.

"She shouldn't have to! You guys do know this isn't normal right?"

Robin laughed. "Chloe, their dad is an ancient evil bloodsucking vampire. Which is super cool by the way, but there is nothing normal about any of it."

"You could call CPS. You should. We should."

"Dad would probably have a party and wave us off."

"Why do you two stay with him?"

"Lack of a better alternative. You've met our mum right?"

Chloe sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "How long until one of you turns sixteen?"

"Six months."

"Then what?"

Vlad and Ingrid exchanged looks. Ingrid grinned, showing off her developing fangs. "Then we see what happens."

Vlad ran his tongue over his teeth. His own mouth had been sore recently (in fact it had been since the sweets thing), but he didn't want to crash Ingrid' thunder by telling her he thought his fangs were coming in several years early.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Smashing the blood mirror was off Vlad's list of ways to avoid becoming a vampire (not that that was a very long list in the first place), as was resurrecting Renfield's father (he tried that one, it was bad).

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Vlad threw his first fireball at thirteen, when their mum arrived heavily pregnant with a baby that clearly could not be the Count's. He doted on her nonetheless (idiot that he was) until the baby was revealed to be a werewolf the first time moonlight hit it. Then Vlad and Ingrid had to rescue it from being eaten. They knew how it felt to be unloved and unwanted.

Which apparently involved yet more closets.

"Sometimes I wonder why we bother," Vlad said, rocking the baby in his arms. Ingrid's head knocked back against the wall.

"I ask myself the same thing all the time."

"Maybe Chloe's right. Maybe going with mum would be a better alternative."

"You think Patrick's going to allow that? He doesn't even want his own brat, why do you think mum brought it here in the first place?"

Vlad had to admit he hadn't thought of that one.

"She knew she couldn't pass him off as dad's forever. She just didn't want him." She sighed heavily. "It's a pity, but we can't keep him here."

"Give it six months." Vlad stared down at the baby. "He only has to make it six months."

Problem was, he knew all too well how long six months could be.

Robin and Chloe created enough of a diversion (without being bitten or eaten by the Count, surprisingly) for them to get the baby outside and shove it back at their mum.

"Six months," Ingrid muttered as she took off.

It would end up being a lot longer than six months.

Later, safe at Robin and Chloe's, they talked about the fireball thing.

"It's not fair," sulked Ingrid. "I haven't thrown mine yet, and you're only thirteen. What are you, some sort of freak?"

Ingrid threw her first fireball the next day. Vlad couldn't make another one for months. He was only thirteen after all.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

When the strange dreams and falling asleep all over the spot started Vlad did what any sensible preteen vampire boy would do. He went to his big sister. Ingrid seethed and raged that he managed that before her too, but she did get him out of the school and round to the Branaghs before anything else untoward happened, so there was that.

Admittedly, having the vampire powers was cool.

Being told to either slay or bite his friend or sister was not.

Vlad didn't enjoy being heartless and evil, but the temptation to blow another hole in the shutters and watch his dad turn to dust and ash was too great.

Relations with the Slayers became even more strained and weirder when Jonno's mum arrived in town. She wanted to end the Van Helsings' bizarre obsession with vampires, and their dad wanted to bite her.

At least she kept the Slayers out of their way for a while.

ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs

Vlad did not like Will Clarke.

Oh, he was fairly sure there was nothing wrong with the boy.

Under any other circumstances they might have been friends.

But Ingrid had to go and fall in love with him.

And it felt like she was abandoning Vlad to fend for himself, when they'd always faced things together.

The first time he had to walk into the Great Hall on his own because she'd snuck out to stay the night at Will's he was actually trembling.

No, Vlad did not like Will Clarke.

Not one bit.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Also off the list of ways to avoid becoming a vampire was the staff of Carpathia. That turned out to be a dead end.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Ingrid's sixteenth birthday came, and with it a traumatic transformation. If one could destroy their reflection when it came for them like that, wondered Vlad, could they escape transforming?

It was worth thinking about.

So was the fact that if they fought hard enough and their will was strong enough they didn't have to be all evil (though of course Imgrid wanted to be, she craved that power).

They also learnt what their mum truly thought of them, as she visited with the intention of marrying Ingrid to Patrick's brother. Ingrid ran off to find her precious boyfriend and Vlad hated him even more.

It turned out that Will Clarke could be even more unbearable. Ingrid turned him. Whether it had been deliberate or not Vlad didn't know, but now the boy was living with them and Vlad had never felt more alone in the world.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

When the Grand High Vampire sentenced their dad to death for fraternising with breather Vlad didn't know what to think. When he was dusted and Vlad started seeing him around corners, he knew exactly what to think.

He was going crazy.

He tried to talk to Ingrid, but she was busy with Will.

Then the crown disintegrated its first victim and suddenly she was all ears.

"You? The Chosen One? Dream on baby brother."

"You think I'm imagining things?"

"Just because I have Will and these now-" she flashed her fangs- "doesn't mean you have to beg for my attention you know. You can talk to me."

Vlad talked to her.

They didn't tell Will Clarke.

He was an imbecile.

Robin stole the crown for him to try and there was an earthquake.

In Stokely.

Which was not known for its earthquakes.

Vlad sat on the steps to the tower and dangled the crown lazily from one hand. Ingrid, Robin and Chloe gathered around him.

"So what are you going to do?" Chloe asked.

"I don't want to be a vampire. Not even a superpowerful one. I just want to be normal."

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Vlad and Ingrid were all for letting the crown ash their dad.

It would solve that problem quite nicely.

Unfortunately the Branaghs had to interfere at the last moment, and then everything went to hell in a handbasket.

He had to accept it. If he didn't, the Slayers would have ashed Ingrid and destroyed everything he cared about. So he wore the crown and the power that ran through him was intoxicating.

When he woke Ingrid was at his side. She had dragged him through to the side room and laid him on the sofa. He felt different somehow, and when he pushed himself up he found he was stronger now, leaner and more muscular.

Their dad was still locked in the UV cage.

"Come on," Ingrid said. "We're leaving."

They had enough time to grab a few meagre belongings before they fled Stokely with one less family member than they arrived with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The more things change, the more things stay the same. So now begin the bigger changes. Although we'll be seeing (some of) the events from the show, things will be different from now on...


	4. Chapter 4

They heard some horror stories of what happened in Stokely after they left. They tried not to look back, tried not to think about it.  
The crown, as it turned out, gave him some of his vampire powers, and they were much more powerful than any other vampire Vlad had seen, but not all of them, and not enough for him to be a full blooded vampire. The sun was uncomfortable, but bearable, and there was no bloodlust.

The problem was that that meant on his sixteenth birthday they were going to have to go back to their dad.

They hadn't taken the Blood Mirror.

It had been the last thing on their minds when they fled Stokely, despite the fact it should really have been the first. They talked about it often.

"I could go through the transformation without it," was Vlad's favourite plan.

"Don't be an imbecile martyr baby brother, that's meant to be hell on earth for pureborn vampires."

"Do you really want to go back to dad?"

"No. But I'm pretty sure the Chosen One will be able to handle him once he's been through his transformation."

"I'm not worried about me. I'm worried about what he might do to you while I'm in there."

That was a very valid concern.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

In the end he slipped out three weeks before his sixteenth while Ingrid was out hunting (one of the few times she would leave him alone). His dad was no longer in Stokely, he had moved to a school called Garside Grange.

"Vladdy my boy! I knew you'd come back!"

"Get over yourself. I'm only here for the mirror."

"Don't be ridiculous! Until you turn eighteen, I am your regent."

"Ingrid is my regent."

"She can't be. Ingrid's a girl."

Vlad had to look it up, but that was true. Women under a hundred couldn't be named as regents. Apparently they had to focus on finding a husband and having children.

It didn't matter in the end, because after he turned sixteen he couldn't find her. He looked, but she had gone to ground, no doubt sulking over his leaving her to use the Blood Mirror alone. His dad saw him into the mirror room. Vlad fought the transformation every step of the way, determined to keep his own will and heart. It took twelve hours.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

He didn't see Ingrid again for a full year.

This time she had none of her usual fire, sick and injured and coughing.

"I tried to find you," Vlad said.

"Maybe I didn't want to be found."

"Why not?"

"You left me Vlad. You left me, all on my own." She flashed her fangs. "You deserved to know what that feels like."

He growled. "Next time you do something like that, I will personally drive a stake through your unbeating heart."

"Noted."

She collapsed shortly after, choking and retching. Vlad helped her into the car and gave the half-fang with her directions to Garside Grange. She had to drag her from the car whaen they reached the school. Vlad flashed her up the stairs.

"I tried giving her some blood," said the half-fang, "but she couldn't keep it down."

"It's okay. We'll fix this. My turn to play Doctor, okay Ingrid?"

'Fixing it' involved un-mindwiping Renfield, who then dithered about with various things that only made her fever worse and had her coughing up blood. The one the Count swore would make her better did no such thing. Vlad tore through the books in the library with the help of his new self-appointed tutor Bertrand de Fortunesa (who highly disapproved and wanted Vlad to be training) and the half-fang, a girl his age called Erin Noble. It was nice to have her company. Vlad hadn't made any friends since Robin and Chloe. At last they found a rare kind of blood poisoning in one of the books and brought Ingrid the cure.

She recovered slowly.

Too slowly for Vlad's liking.

While she was still sick, still weak, she was still vulnerable.

The half-fang, Erin, offered to share her room and watch out for her. Vlad readily agreed, and wondered whether the girl was one of Ingrid's creations. That didn't matter of course, what mattered was that she was another set of eyes and hands for them.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Their mum showed up, but both Vlad and Ingrid had got used to her arrivals always meaning she wanted something a very long time ago. They got rid of her quick sharpish by pretending that Ingrid needed to be spoon fed, and since Magda was her mother...

She didn't stick around.

Her son, the baby that caused so much trouble all those years ago, did.

Admittedly, both Vlad and Ingrid had forgotten about the boy.

Those six months had been eventful ones.

The boy was a sweet kid. It made Ingrid sick and angry that their mum had never named him properly, so she gave him a name for himself: Sirius, after the dog star . He was a sweet kid. Vlad did wish he'd stop crawling into holes and overhearing stuff he shouldn't overhear though.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Ingrid was taken by surprise by the fact he'd never taken his first hunt.

"You've been a vampire for a year and you've never been hunting?"

"I never wanted to hurt people."

Now he cared much less, and sometimes that scared him.

"It's tradition baby brother."

"Ingrid. I'm not going hunting."

An hour later they were hidden in the shadows of the city outskirts. Vlad wasn't sure how she'd managed to talk him into this.

"Just like old times, right baby brother?"

"What, hiding in alleyways from dad this time instead of closets?"

She flashed her fangs at him. "Exactly."

She was careful with her choice, a young woman with bright red hair who she dragged into the ally and bit before tossing to him. Instinct kicked in and he clamped down on the wound.

The blood tasted good, but Vlad vowed never to taste it again.


	5. Chapter 5

It had been a long time since Vlad had anyone his own age to confide in, and Erin provided that role. So, of course, because his children must never be happy, Count Dracula demanded she be thrown into a firepit. Ingrid helped him break her out of the cage and as they waited for the sun to set so the three of them (and Sirius) could leave Garside - and the Count - Vlad kissed her. Erin, that was. Not Ingrid.

Her lips were warm.

She was human.

It felt like she'd ripped out his heart.

He roared and screamed, throwing her across the room. Ingrid shot inside, a knife in her hand. Vlad snarled, unable to make the words, pointing furiously at Erin. Ingrid looked between them and spun the knife in her hand. Erin shook her head. "It's not what it looks like. I can explain, let me-"

"She's a breather!"

Ingrid frowned. "Is that it? I thought she'd tried to stake you or something."

Vlad snarled and glared at Erin. "You lied to me! I thought you cared about me!"

"I do care about you!"

"Then why didn't you tell me?"

She opened and closed her mouth.

"You could have told me! You should have told me!"

"I get the feeling this is exactly why she didn't tell you baby brother."

Vlad growled. "Shut up Ingrid."

"Fine, fine. Just saying."

Vlad glared down at Erin. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was scared."

"Why do this at all? Why come here?"

Her gaze slid past him to Ingrid. "She bit my brother. I thought if I staked her it would end the line and turn him back."

Ingrid raised her eyebrows. "You do know that's an old wives tale? Staking the creator won't help you at all, except making you feel a bit better."

Erin sighed. "Yeah, Bertrand said. I figured if I was going to find a cure anywhere, it would be here with the Draculas, right?"

Vlad held his hand out and pulled her to her feet. "If you want to leave, half-fang, you leave right here, right now. If you stay, you never lie to me or keep anything from me again. Do you understand?"

She nodded.

"And?"

"I was a Slayer," she whispered.

That one did come as a surprise.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

They took Erin's car and left Garside, setting up camp in an old manor a hundred miles away.

From what Vlad heard, the Count was furious.

Served him right.

He'd taken his family with him, and what did they need Count Dracula for any more? As regent? He named Ingrid regent.

Sirius loved it there, there was a big garden with a small wood of trees at the back for him to play in. It was nice seeing him act like a normal child for once. Vlad had never had that. Neither had Ingrid. Neither had Erin. Her parents were Slayers. They started teaching her to Slay as soon as she could walk.

"And now here I am, hiding out with two vampires and a vampire werewolf hybrid thing. What would my parents think?"

Vlad growled. "It doesn't matter what they would think. You've got us now."

She smiled, and looked at Wolfie as he whispered to his teddy. "What's he gonna be like when he grows up?"

Ingrid shrugged. "Most hybrid children take after one or the other parent. He's already started changing, so I would assume he'll be a werewolf."

"So he won't change and be a vampire like you two?"

"Might like his meat rare. But then that's a werewolf thing too."

"Huh."

Bertrand was the one to find them, bringing that damn book of his with him. "It doesn't matter to me what you decide to do or go, but please let me know the next time."

They moved that night, Bertrand had led the Slayers right to them and Vlad could have staked him, he really could.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

They went back to Stokely, partly to visit and partly because it was the last place anyone would go looking for them.

Vlad hadn't got a good look the night he and Ingrid fled, on account of being semi-conscious. Now though, he could see the damage the vampires had wreaked. The houses were ruins. The streets were little red with rubbish and the husks of rotting cars. The place stank like rotting corpses.

He looked at Ingrid.

Ingrid looked at him.

Neither of them spoke.

They went to visit the castle.

It was a burnt out ruin.

That was a shame.

It was a nice castle.

He'd liked that castle.

Vlad looked at Ingrid.

Ingrid looked at him.

Neither of them spoke.

Bertrand, who had wandered off somewhere - probably to meditate with his precious book and whisper 'my darling' to it - yelled. Vlad flashed over to him. No one touched his allies!

He found Bertrand struggling with a tiny figure in a heap of rags. Vlad threw it off him. The girl landed twenty feet away and rolled into a crouch, snarling-

Then stopped.

"Vlad?"

"Chloe?"

She was thin, sickly thin, and vampire-pale, but with her long fangs that wasn't a surprise. By the looks of her, she must have been turned soon after he left Stokely, a year at most. She pressed a hand to her mouth. "I'm sorry. I'm just hungry, and there's nothing to eat."

Vlad looked at Bertrand. "Stay with her. If anything happens to her, I will personally stake you."

He brought her back a lamb, and she gulped the blood down eagerly. Erin went a funny shade of green. Chloe licked the last of the blood from around her lips. "What are you doing here?"

"We thought we'd stop by. What happened to you?"

She rubbed her neck as if remembering. "The vampires... They overran the town. We couldn't fight back. Ian... And dad... Mum tried to take me and Robin and Paul away, but she timed it wrong and they crashed the car. I don't know what happened to her. Robin and I, they- They-" She rubbed her neck again. "And left us for dead. Paul... He got away. He's a Slayer now."

"Is Robin here too?"

She shook her head. "We got split up a few months ago. Slayer attack. They've been more proactive really."

Ingrid glanced at Vlad. "Gee, I wonder why."

"I thought he might come back here, so I came..."

"You're staying with us."

Vampires could age, but slowly. Very slowly. Very, very slowly.

Chloe Branagh was going to be an eleven year old vampire for a very, very, very long time.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

They left Stokely in the morning, one family member up from what they had arrived with.

After the Slayers found them for the third time, they decided it safest to return to Garside. Vlad warned his dad that the next time he put a foot out of line, he would be the one out on the street, not them.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Chloe was not the girl he remembered.

She was defensive, quick to anger, and even quicker to attack.

Her hunger was almost insatiable.

Vlad wondered if it had something to do with her age. He told Bertrand to do some research on young half-fang vampires. Then again, it could also be the fact that she tried to resist the urge to eat, to feed, even when Vlad offered her disgusting soy substitutes. She'd starve herself half-conscious and then go on a rampage, desperate for food.

Ingrid set about teaching her how to moderate.

Bertrand said her age could make her metabolism faster, trying to maintain her age and youth as well as help her to grow even a tiny bit. Vlad told him to find a way to keep her fed without her drinking them out of house and home.

In the end they bought a small cottage to keep sheep at and one of them took Chloe there nightly to make her drink. It seemed to help, if only a little.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

The day Vlad started hearing voices calling his name he thought he must be going insane. He found himself in the mirror room, staring at the Blood Mirror. "What do you want now then?"

The gargoyles at either side came to life and threw him inside.

He hadn't seen that one coming.

It turned out that as the Chosen One, he had more than one reflection to merge with. He had a thousand (which made no literal sense, but eh, whatever). He could feel his power increasing as they jumped into him. It felt good.

Vlad stepped from the Blood Mirror a changed man. He was taller and more muscular, his hair darker, and his blue eyes flecked with red. Black leather covered him from his neck to feet. The Dracula clan symbol was printed on both shoulders. Vlad fingered it and smiled.

He had never felt more powerful.

He had never felt more vengeful.

He had never felt less like a Dracula.

He smiled, licking at his newly enlarged fangs.

Everyone except Ingrid, Erin, Sirius and Chloe wanted something from him. Power, money, fame, political power, military power, something, everything.

The world never had any love for him.

And in his newly empowered body, he had no love for it.


	6. Chapter 6

In his absence, some upstart from the clans had arrived, a black vampire called Ramanga. The Count and Renfield were cowering as four copies of him surrounded them. Bertrand was clutching his precious book to his chest. Ingrid, Erin, and Chloe were watching from the side of the training room, Sirius in Ingrid's arms.

Now there was something no one imagined seeing.

Ingrid Dracula with a child on her hip.

Vlad snapped his fingers and summoned that blasted book of Bertrand's straight to him. One by one the fingers lifted until it flew open.

"My Lord," whispered the upstart, kneeling as he should. One by one, the others dropped to the floor. Vlad stopped, looked at Ingrid, Erin, and Chloe, Ingrid still with Sirius in her arms, now held against her chest.

"Not you three. You stand."

He ripped the book open.

Empty.

It was empty.

All this for nothing!

Vlad laughed.

The upstart left to report to the clans, probably to tell them how much of a threat he was and exactly where the Dracula lair now was.

Vlad didn't care.

Let them come.

He could deal with them.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

His dad tried to corner him in the hall, prattling on about how proud he was.

Puh-lees.

Honestly.

Vlad didn't want to kill him outright, no, because death should be a release, not a punishment. Instead, he hung him from the rafters with garlic wrapped around his wrists and neck.

Then he went to find something to eat, because he was hungry and it had been such a long time since he had proper food.  
He made a mess of it, blood splattered all over him. He showered and then strolled back to the hall, where he found Ingrid lounging across the Count's throne, pointedly ignoring his demands to get him down. Erin was sat at the smaller table, which she had dragged over to Ingrid's side, leaning over a book with Chloe. Wolfie played with his teddy at their feet. They looked like the perfect picture of a little family. The room stank of burnt flesh. Ingrid smiled.

"Looking good baby brother."

"Thank you. You're in my seat."

She raised her eyebrows. "Who said it was your seat?"

"I did, just now. That means it's mine. Move."

"Make me."

Vlad took her collar in one hand, the belt of her dress in the other, and effortlessly lifted her from the throne, settling her gently on the floor. "The next time I say move, you move." He sunk into the throne. "It's not actually very comfortable, is it?"

"It's better if you put your legs over the side and then lean on the other arm."

Vlad did so. Ingrid nodded. "Yeah, like that."

"It is not!" whined their dad.

"Shut up or I'll gag you with garlic," Vlad snapped. "Bertrand! Renfield! Get in here!"

Bertrand soon arrived. Renfield came in after him, carrying a tray of drinks, which he dropped when he noticed the Count.

"Master! Oh, Master! Hang on, I'll get you down!"

"No you won't!" snarled Ingrid, flashing across the room to shove him against the wall.

"Here's how it's going to work from now on," Vlad said. "Things are going to be done my way. If you don't like it, you know where my fangs and the door are."

"You've got some nerve Vladdy."

Vlad growled. "Don't call me Vladdy."

"If you think I'll be taking orders from you-"

"Oh, you will. Or you die. Those are your choices, father."

Because he was the one in charge now, he was the one with all the power, and it felt good.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Of course the Count chose living. He was a selfish coward who bullied children and didn't want to die. Vlad let him down before he walked with Erin back to her room. "You know, someone told me once there was a reason vampires didn't make friends with breathers. That reason is that breathers age Erin. They get old. They die. I don't want that for you."

"What are you doing Vlad? This isn't like you!"

"That's where you're wrong. This is exactly like me. It's just that I never had the confidence or power to do it before." He held tight to her hand. "I want you by my side Erin."

"And what about my Vlad? The one I fell in love with? What happened to him?"

"I'm still him. I'm just stronger now. Better. And I want you."

"I liked how you were before."

"I was weak before. I let people get away with far too much. I know better now."

"Uh. Good?"

"It is good. We'll be the winning side. For all eternity." He bared his fangs.

"E- uh, Vlad-"

"Eternity is a long time to spend on your own. I want you there with me."

"What about Ingrid?"

Vlad laughed, venom pooling in his mouth. "She's my sister. I don't think she's exactly the sort of company I'm looking for."

"Oh. Well what about Chloe?"

"I don't feel for Chloe the way I feel for you. Not anymore."

She was too young, too wild, too unpredictable, too... different. Too Chloe.

"Think about it. What did the Slayers ever do for you? I could give you family, eternal life, power."

"Vlad-"

"What do you say? Eternity? Strengths? Power? Or you can take your chances going back to the Slayers."

Erin shook her head. "I was a terrible Slayer."

"Yes you were."

"But-"

"Or you could just leave. But you've been fraternising with my family long enough, you'll be a target. Stand by me or leave

Erin. Run back to the Slayers, if they'll even have you. What did they do for you other than take your life away?"

"They made sure I met you," Erin whispered.

"And now you have to choose. Me or them Erin? Death or eternity? Think about everything I could give you. We would be together forever. I want you by my side. Yes or no?"

Erin closed her eyes. "So help me, yes."

He hadn't expected that answer.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

The first stage of Erin's transformation was fast, and she made for a beautiful half-fang.

"Funny. Nothing for months and now it's like she's newly bitten," said Bertrand one day during training.

"Funny that," agreed Vlad, and threw him halfway across the hall.

Erin proved her worth the day Mina and Jonno Van Helsing arrived. She grabbed his arm and pointed out the bands on their wrists. "For controlling heart rates and blood pressure. They're Slayers."

"Interesting."

They played with the Van Helsings for a little bit, letting them in and leading them on. There were never any real plans to let them live. Vlad watched as Mina found the Praedictum Impaver and cut herself, causing words to appear in the book. After thinking about it for a moment, he jumped down behind her and sank his fangs into her neck, spelling enough blood on the book to fill it with words. He tossed MIna to Erin. "You want? Slayer's blood's meant to be good."

Erin caught her out of instinct. He saw her freeze, hesitate, the last of the human Slayer in her. Then she bit down on the wound. Vlad smiled. Bertrand hurried into the hall.

"We have a problem. Your sister-"

"Bertrand, just the man I wanted to see. Look, the book has filled with words!"

(It turned out that what Ingrid had done was biting and killing Jonno in a fit of rage after he gave her a frilly pink tutu as a present. That solved that problem quite nicely.)

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

The book did more than fill with words. It gave rise to Sethius, an ancient megalomaniac who wanted to destroy vampires and breathers alike in his vision for a new world filled with darkness.

That was top of Vlad's list for things he hadn't been expecting.

Sethius outranked Boris on Vlad and Ingrid's list of the craziest people they knew. He was quite fabulous though, and very, very evil. He also claimed to be the Chosen One, which made them... The Chosen Two Vlad supposed.

He had to die of course.

He was in Vlad's way and a considerable threat to himself and his own.

Vlad battled with him until sundown, and then Sethius managed to flee to cause trouble somewhere else.

Vlad growled.

Let him go.

They would find him.

There was nowhere to hide.

Vlad needed there to be a world left to rule.


	7. Chapter 7

Sethius started gathering power and allies as soon as he could, and so Vlad began doing the same.

Of course, he could never trust any of them.

But they needed the numbers.

They approached the feral clans, the ones that knew how it felt to be cast down, cast out, overlooked and trodden on, and the feral clans met them with open arms. In return for simply being treated like they mattered, like they were equals, they would do and agree to anything.

They weren't equals of course. Some of them were barely vampires, half-fangs created by half-fangs created by half-fangs, the vampirism weak and their powers weaker, their sanity hanging by a knife thread. Not like his Erin and Chloe. Not strong, not beautiful.

Weak.

Expendable.

But he could use them, and use them they did, sending them where they were needed to face Sethius's forces.

Meanwhile, the Slayers had upped their game since the death of the Van Helsings and Sethius's release. Vlad hated to admit it, but that was probably a good thing.

Every time he looked at Chloe he was reminded of why they didn't need a repeat of what happened in Stokely.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Since he established who was in charge, the Count had been supportive.

As much as he did 'supportive.'

Ingrid warned Vlad that he would almost certainly be plotting something, probably involving marriage, oaths, or political alliances.

It was the first one, because of course it was.

The woman, Adze, was beautiful.

And a princess.

Vlad thought long and hard about adding her to their little family.

In the end he decided against it. He'd never be able to trust her like he could trust Erin and Ingrid and Chloe. She had nothing but poison, lies, and insincerity behind her eyes.

She would destroy their family sooner than add to it, and Vlad couldn't have that.

He couldn't have threats to him and his own.

Adze had to die.

It was as easy as reaching out and snapping her neck.

Really, it was.

The room fell silent.

"Oh dear. What a terrible accident has befallen her," Ingrid drawled. Vlad nodded sagely.

"It was truly a terrible accident."

"It was no accident! You broke her neck!" roared her father. Vlad shrugged and snaked an arm around Erin's waist.

"Truly dreadful."

Ramanga tried to attack him of course. Vlad could easily have retaliated, but Ingrid, who he had been doting on since they met, got there first and drove her knife into the back of his neck and up into his skull.

"Oh dear," said Erin. "A terrible accident has befallen them both."

Chloe nodded. "Truly terrible." She licked her lips. She was hungry. She hadn't eaten tonight because of the part. Vlad nodded in agreement.

"Indeed it has. Does anyone else want to add to the drama tonight?"

The gathered vampires backed away slowly.

"Really? No one? What about you dad? Do you have anything to say about this terrible accident?"

The Count stared at the corpses, which were slowly but surely turning to ash on his floor. "Nothing at all Vlad my boy."

"Oh good. I'm sure something like this won't happen again. You should get someone to clean that up."

"You ever consider it might not be worth keeping him around?" Erin asked as they left. Vlad shrugged. One of the vampires from the hall, smaller than most, followed them out, keeping to the shadows.

"I've considered it."

"And?"

"And he hasn't made himself a big enough threat to justify it yet."

Erin nodded and hummed. "Just a thought."

Ingrid smiled. "Oh, we've had that thought."

Plenty of times.

Their shadow followed them to their room. Ingrid turned and folded her arms over her chest. "Are you going to show your face, or just keeping skulking in the shadows like some creepy stalker?"

The figure stepped out into the light of the torches. They were small and a little more than slender, closer to thin, with thin, pale hands and a hood covering their face.

"And you are?"

She pushed her hood down. Now there was a face Vlad hadn't thought about in years.

"Cousin Olga. How nice to see you again."

"Likewise."

"Can I ask what you're doing creeping about my house like some creepy stalker?"

"Following you."

He looked her over. She really did look thin, and a funny colour as well. Not just vampire-pale, but green-yellowish, like she was sick.

"Is your father here too?"

"Haven't seen him in years. The last I heard he was off terrorising the Ukraine."

"Huh."

"He dragged me along for a bit, but he soon got tired of me."

"So what do you want?"

"The Blood Mirror. I turn sixteen in two weeks."

Ingrid wanted to throw her to the sunlight. Erin wanted to stake her, which would be... ineffective considering she hadn't turned yet. Chloe wanted to drain her dry. They really would have to feed her soon. Vlad told her there was a spare coffin in the room down the hall.

Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and your family where you can see them.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Olga was a much meeker and quieter girl than the evil spoilt brat that they met before. She walked with her head up, but had a quite noticeable limp and backed down in any confrontation. Vlad let her mope around the house for a few days and then started prodding.

It turned out after Boris's death Ivan had gone rampaging across Europe, dragging Olga with him like a lost puppy to work as an indentured servant.

"Oh, if only I'd known!" lamented the Count. "I would have joined him!"

"We were keeping a low profile," Vlad reminded him.

"Anyways, he ditched me in Hungary when he got sick of me slowing him down. I've been staying with some of the feral vampire clans for the past few years, but I'm turning sixteen now. I just need the Blood Mirror, and then I can show my father what I think of him."

The Count laughed. "You, a little girl, beat Ivan? I don't think so!"

Olga snarled. "Watch me!"

The Count snarled back. Ingrid laid a hand on Olga's arm. "He might have a teeny bit of a point. Uncle Ivan is a powerful centuries old vampire. You're a sixteen year old girl."

"Fifteen," Vlad muttered.

Ingrid, Erin and Chloe took Olga off into their room for some girl time, leaving Vlad with Wolfie for company. They played fetch.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Olga came out of the transformation a little taller, her hair a little darker, and her skin a better colour.

She still had the limp though.

There were some things the change couldn't fix.

Vlad, Ingrid, Erin and Chloe took her for her first hunt. It was good fun, hunting with a sloppy sixteen year old so giddy with her new power she forgot they were meant to be heartless monsters.

"Do you think I could stay?" she asked a few days later. "Not forever. Just for a little bit. It's quite nice having family again."

Even if it was a broken, dysfunctional one.

"We'll see," Vlad said, and tried to ignore the fact there was an extra coffin in Ingrid, Erin and Chloe's room these days.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

They found Ivan in Russia, slaughtering a small village.

"Waste of blood if you ask me," Ingrid said, shaking her head.

"He'd never drink all of this," Erin agreed. Chloe licked her lips. She could probably give it a good go.

"He's a little man who wants to make himself feel powerful," Vlad said, looking at the destruction. Ivan snarled.

"Just who do you think you are?"

Vlad smiled. "I'm the Chosen One. And a waste of blood like this is not on my agenda."

"Well well well. Look at you. Little Vladdy all grown up."

Vlad bared his fangs.

"Although I hear you're not the only Chosen One these days, are you?"

"That fake will be dealt with."

Ingrid and Erin stepped aside to let Olga move past them.

"Do you recognise me?"

"Mm... Did I slaughter your parents last week and drain their blood? No, wait, was that last month? Or maybe last year?"

Olga screamed. Lightning cracked overhead.

"I am your daughter!"

"Oh yes, now I see. You got the family temper Helga."

"Olga!"

"Olga? No, that can't be right, I would never name a daughter of mine Olga. Terrible name. Hmm. Maybe I would..."

She threw a fireball at him.

Vlad could hardly blame her.

  
**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Olga stayed, and struck up an odd sort of friendship with Chloe. Vlad kept a close watch on her, but she mostly seemed to just enjoy having somewhere safe to spend her days.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

They thought about staking the Count even more when a man claiming to be their older brother, their dad's son, and his true son and heir arrived at Garside Grange. Worse, their idiot dad invited him into their lives with open arms.

"We could always stake them both," Ingrid suggested.

"I'm not interested in petty family drama. I've got my family right here in this room, and we are off to visit the High Council."

Erin raised her eyebrows. "We are? When was that decided?"

"Right now. Let's go."

  
**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

No one in the High Council questioned his authority after he dusted the one vampire that tried to stop Erin and Chloe following him into the lair. Who did he think he was?

Vlad made sure they all knew who was in charge. Him, and Ingrid, and Erin, and Chloe. In that order. They weren't scared little kids anymore. He was already one of the most powerful vampires in the world, and when he came of age, he would be the most powerful vampire in history.

No one would ever kick them around again.

No one.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

When they got home three weeks later, they found the Count had made Malik legitimate and the Dracula heir.

"How sad. A pathetic last ditch attempt of a power play," Ingrid said.

"Truly pathetic," agreed Erin.

"Very sad," murmured Chloe.

"You lot haven't had to live here and watch him fawn over the moron," said Olga. "It was sickening, really."

"Did you really think either of us would care?" Vlad asked, genuinely surprised. It was the kind of thing they might have card about five years ago, but now they had importance of their own.

They cared a little more when Malik's mother, a crazy, psychopathic, power hungry shapeshifter, showed up to stay causing trouble. Badly.

Oh, she did her best to manipulate things and split them up. Bertrand figured out it was a shapeshifter easily enough, and after talking to the Count they worked out who she was. Elizabetta, the Count's ex-wife.  
Sometimes Vlad really did wonder whether or was to much trouble to keep him around.

She poisoned the Count and had the nerve to walk right up to him wearing Ingrid's body. Vlad laughed in her stolen face. They knew each other well enough to tell when something wasn't right. She was too fast for them to kill her here, but on the other side of the Blood Mirror it was child's play. Vlad staked her and her pathetic wimpire excuse for a son. Unfortunately, Renfield had made a cure for his precious Master. That was disappointing.


	8. Chapter 8

They found Robin with a feral clan in Scotland. The clan themselves were little more than animals, skulking round in a cave system, living off rats and cats. The leader was a girl with a tangle of black hair and deadly aim with lightning bolts. She was the only one there with any real power though. The others huddled around her like children begging for safety. She scorned them, Vlad could see it in her eyes.

He knew that look.

Robin too looked little older than the last time Vlad saw him, but his hair was longer now, his eyes darker, and his skin even paler. He looked worse than when they found Chloe, half-starved, sickly and starving. Vlad and Ingrid took him hunting that very night. He drained two cows and a breather before he even started to look healthy again.

"Chloe," was the first thing he said.

"She's safe."

"You look good," was the second.

"You look like death warmed up a little," said Ingrid, which was the truth.

They returned to Garside Grange with another addition to their family.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Robin was more violent than Vlad remembered him. He was short tempered and always gearing up for a fight. The moment he saw Chloe he threw himself at her and knocked the smaller girl to the ground, the two of them rolling over at vampire speed until they managed to disengage.

After that they were inseparable, moving into a separate room together and making sure they never had to be apart. They were anxious only being on separate sides of a room from each other, constantly glancing at the other to make sure they were still there.

Sometimes it made Vlad happy and sometimes it made him sad. They were never that close as humans. It reminded him of another brother-sister pair he could think of.

Even now, he and Ingrid had fallen back into old routines.

If they weren't in their bedrooms, they were together. No ifs, no buts, no maybes about it.

But then he normally had at least some of his little family at his back these days. They were there for him.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

Their mum came and tried to take Sirius away. Ingrid laughed in her face. "You left him here without a goodbye, you didn't even name him, and now you want him back?"

"Well darlings, he is my son. He's only your brother."

"He is staying right here."

"Ingrid darling, try and stop me taking him." Magda flashed over to the table Sirius was hiding under. Erin got there first and picked him up. He wrapped his arms tightly around her neck. Magda grabbed at him. "Let go you worthless half-fang."

Erin snarled. Vlad snarled louder. He flashed to her side and tossed Magda away across the hall. "Get out. If I ever see you again I will turn you into a snivelling pile of dust!"

"You don't have the guts! You never did, you spineless piece of-"

Magda didn't finish that sentence. Her mouth formed a funny 'o' shape.

Erin had just slammed a very long, very sharp stake through her chest.

Magda exploded into ashes.

Erin blinked. "Huh. I make a better Slayer as a vampire than as a human. Who'd have guessed?"

"Is she gone now?" asked Sirius. Vlad took him from Erin's arms. It had to be the first time he'd actually held the boy (unless one counted when he was a baby, which Vlad didn't).

"Yeah. She's gone now." He glanced at the pile of dust that had been his mother. "Someone should really sweep that up. It's making the place look bad."

Reducing one parent to a pile of ash had been horrifyingly easy.

He wondered how hard it would be to reduce the other one to the same state.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

His eighteenth birthday brought yet another power boost. He had been just able to match Sethius before, now he could out power him easily.

He used some of the power to give his family a boost. Chloe and Robin quite noticeably grew, only a little, but they grew. Ingrid and Erin took a boost to their vampire powers, while Olga's leg healed enough for her to stop limping.

It was nice to help one's family.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

No one questioned their authority now, and they had no need to keep hiding in the shadows.

They announced war on anyone who refused to bow to them. It took two years, but Sethius came out to face them instead of hiding like the coward he was. He monologued about his great master plan to slaughter the breathers in their millions, how they would like there was no tomorrow (which there wouldn't be if all the breathers were dead and their source of food gone), how it would be a new vampire dawn with him at the head as the all powerful leader.

Vlad laughed.

He wasn't anywhere near all powerful.

He wasn't even as powerful as Vlad.

They fought, red against blue, clashing in the centre. His family fought by his side, keeping any who might stake him in the back away.

Robin and Chloe had a field day.

They won, as if there had ever been any doubt or question about that. They won, and Vlad ashed Sethius. His forces submitted almost immediately. Vlad ordered them ashed too. They had stood against him once. He wouldn't risk it happening again.

**ItEndswithUs-ITENDSWITHUS-ItEndswithUs**

The last person to stand in his way was, of course, his own father, the once mighty Count Dracula. He hadn't been the same since Magda was ashed. In fact, they had barely seen him. Vlad suspected he was hiding from them until he could concoct a new scheme.

He reappeared at the Council chambers while they were holding a war Council. The vampires of the world had been divided for too long, pure bloods against half-fangs, nobles against ferals, clans against clans. Elders against children.  
It would stop here.

This would be a whole new world for the young of today.

"Vladdy! I heard you want to repeal the Faroman Rules."

"That's old news, we did that last week. Those laws were archaic."

Those laws were also the same ones that said females were worthless, that Ingrid and Olga were useless wastes of vampirism good only to be married off as bargaining chips.

Archaic indeed.

"But Vladdy! What will people think? This could uproot the old family ways!"

"Oh, and what a shame that would be," Ingrid drawled.

"It's a new age now dad. A new sunset. Your time is long past." Vlad stepped round him.

"You will destroy our way of life!"

"Good. Our way of life was pitiful and a waste. I'm going to make vampire society into something new."

In the end, they didn't need to stake the great Count Dracula, and he ran off to sulk somewhere.


	9. Chapter 9

They wouldn't see him again for six years, longer than all the time he was away from Ingrid.

In that time Erin's powers only grew, bested by Vlad's and Ingrid's alone. She was the most powerful half-fang in history. Perhaps it had to do with her being the Chosen One's first bite. They talked about having kids only once, but decided to wait. After all, they had eternity to make the world perfect for their children.

Chloe and Robin aged a little, and grew stronger if not older in appearance. Chloe let her hair grow out to her waist, a tangled mass of blonde curls that looked terrifying in battle. Her friendship with Olga grew into something... more, and everyone pretended not to hear them during the dawn hours. Robin hated the separation from her, but he wouldn't deny his sister her happiness.

Sirius grew into a healthy eleven year old boy with a muscular figure that made him look years older. His wolf form grew too, developing into a small but fearsome wolf capable of taking down any vampire. And take down vampires he did.

They were doing this for his generation after all.

In that time, those six years, they waged war with the other vampires, both through paperwork and physical means. Laws and rules were changed. A new school for young vampires was established in what used to be Garside Grange, teaching them useful skills like how to fit in with breathers and how to live day to day. Vlad's little family oversaw it personally.

A ball was held in honour of Vlad's twenty fourth birthday. His dad came for some reason. He even brought a present, a black leather jacket for Vlad, a red velvet cape for Ingrid and a green glass necklace for Erin. Vlad looked at him from his throne on the stage, surrounded by his true family, and wondered whether to thank him or stake him.


End file.
